Saturday, March 6, 2010

The Leech





Having kids always reminds me of the year I asked for a "Puppy Surprise" for Christmas. I was a bit too old and a bit too tomboyish to be asking for the pink plush puppy with the velcro tummy that held a surprise amount of puppies inside. But the whole idea of not knowing whether you would get boys or girls or 2 or 3 or 6 held some kind of draw for me.

Getting pregnant is kind of the same thing. You never know what you're gonna get. A boy? A girl? One of each? And then after they're born its an assortment of other surprises: what will they look like? will they have blue eyes or brown eyes? what is their personality type?

I keep telling Dave that Caiden is like a "Puppy Surprise." Tonight she was doing all sorts of weird tricks with her tongue: taco tongue, scrunching it up into a weird wavy contortion, twisting it around. And I just kept thinking, "Where did I get this little tiny cute girl who can fold up her tongue in such weird ways?"

When Elliott was little, he always wanted to get down and be moving and exploring. Caiden, on the other hand, is like a little leech. And lately, her leeching tendencies have gone off the charts. Suddenly she sucks herself to you whenever someone is around, if someone new walks into the room, even if its only Daddy. If someone she doesn't know is there she will hide her face and freak out if she can't be touching Mommy or Daddy. At home, if one of us won't hold her, she'll dissolve into tears and and crumple up into a little ball and not look at us. If we tell her not to do something, she'll dissolve into tears, scrunch up her face and hide her eyes in her little tiny hands and nothing can pry them off. "Hold chu?" and "Uppy!" have become her two favorite words and tears have become her favorite liquid. And really, any one who knows me realizes that I have no one but myself to blame. I've cried buckets and buckets worth of tears in my day and falling on the floor in a fit of tears was my specialty growing up. Hiding my face when I'm upset is a trademark. Can these things be genetic?

I still love you, little pink puppy. Best surprise ever!

Photo credit: David Escalante. Check out David's new Analog Digital photo blog, updated daily



8 comments:

sarah e. said...

i like how it's a universal thing for little ones to say they want to 'hold you' when really they want us to hold them.

Corynne Escalante said...

Yes! that IS funny. i think it is because i always ask her, "what? do you want me to hold you?" so she thinks "hold you" is what is proper to say when you want to be held. clever clever. <3

Vanessa said...

So precious. <3 That is funny because Aly says 'Hold you' to me too. Love your blog btw.

Nina49a said...

she is so funny. weird how each puppy is so different...what could be next? Hmmmm.

elisabeth. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
elisabeth. said...

she looks just like heather in that second picture!!!

allisonescalante said...

at first i thought this was an awful way of telling everyone you are pregnant... kinda like the time you guys chose christmas eve to tell us you were moving away and never coming back. Or maybe thats what we were supposed to get from dave transferring all of our info off our old computer onto your guy's mac mini... all not good ideas to tell someone something BIG. But then as I read on I realized you were just talking about caiden being her silly self. Phew...

Tiffany said...

I love you Corynne. And I miss your little puppies. :)